


Desbundar

by perryvic, Zaganthi (Caffiends)



Series: Emotional Intelligence [10]
Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Consent Issues, Frozen Teardrop has a lot to answer for, It's not a threesome, It's two twosomes in the same room, M/M, Newtypes (Gundam Wing), Porn with Feelings, Post-Eve Wars (Gundam Wing), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychic Abilities, Psychic Bond, Quatre Raberba's Uchuu no Kokoro | Space Heart, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 16:53:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30142632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perryvic/pseuds/perryvic, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caffiends/pseuds/Zaganthi
Summary: "Here. Duo, come here." Treize kept an arm around Quatre's waist, and with one hand squeezed Quatre's ass. "We'll swap.""Duo is that okay?" Quatre said softly, worried about if they were pushing Duo too fast. He sent that as a secret worry to Treize; he didn't want to scare Duo off, he wanted him too.There was speculation, and Duo muttered, "We're really fucking doing this.""We're really fucking doing this," Treize agreed, pulling away from Quatre and giving Duo space to move behind Quatre.
Relationships: Duo Maxwell/Quatre Raberba Winner, Treize Khushrenada/Quatre Raberba Winner
Series: Emotional Intelligence [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2186436
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	Desbundar

**Author's Note:**

> Desbundar (Portuguese) – to shed one’s inhibitions in having fun

When Khushrenada had said he was looking forward to going home, Duo wasn't sure what the place would look like. He'd seen Sanc castle, he'd seen plenty of crazy rich people compounds; he didn't expect to be standing outside a five story townhouse smack in the middle of a city center, while an OZ soldier opened the door for them and welcomed them, and the luggage, in. The interior was white, black wrought iron, and more antiques than most museums probably had, and the General seemed to immediately relax being on home turf, chatting in French to the officer at the door, he guessed.

"This place..." He just looked up at the ceiling.

"It's impressive isn't it?" Quatre said as he headed in, seeming familiar with the place. "It's actually pretty homey inside and the staff live in like extended family. I think you'll like it."

"Oh, I had those damn rooms painted and gutted since we were out." Treize called that out to Quatre, like it meant anything in particular.

From the way Quatre paused, it did. "I'm impressed," Quatre commented. "Lets see what they've made of it - it's a suite of rooms all together. It used to be Treize's family rooms." And from what he remembered, Treize had said something about his mother. Not exactly happy families.

Had he said his mother fucked him? That was... dark. Weird. Maybe a good reason to run away and join the military or however that shit had gone down. And maybe not as literal as it had sounded, maybe it was like fucked him over. He shifted his duffel bag, and started up the stairs after Quatre.

"Where'm I ending up?" 

"I'll show you," Quatre replied and then looked at him. "Although I slept better last night than I have for a long time." He was definitely moving better for it, as they made it up to the third floor.

"Here we are, so there's this study and living room area which has this fire which I really enjoy. I often do meditation here. Over here is the master bedroom where Treize sleeps, and me often as not, but if I was on my own I'd sleep here..." He gestured to one of the rooms, "And that would make that yours."

"Is there, this is a door between the master bedroom and the kids rooms or? I." Duo stood in the doorway, gesturing back and forth. There was definitely a faint smell of paint to be had, as Quatre gestured him to the larger bedroom that was a half a step away from the other bedroom. It was a nice room; newer looking fancy furniture, big bed, warm brown and white paint job.

"Yes. It's a nice space," Quatre said. "I mean if you asked, Treize would put a lock on it, but it's me with the habit of turning up in people's beds."

"Ohhh yeah, that's creepy," Duo declared, just from the way the door seemed to be hidden. "I said something about money, fixing shit, protecting people sometimes, and he said money didn't stop his mom from fucking him, and I thought wow that explains a lot. Nice place." The master bedroom felt comfortable, more broken in.

"Mmm, I couldn't set foot in that room before," Quatre admitted. "But now it feels different. Wiped clean. I wonder how that works."

"Does it look much different then? Maybe that's it, maybe it's not really the same room anymore. I mean was it like still his childhood bedroom?" And he hadn't missed the comment that Quatre was mostly going to be in the general's master bedroom, but with a man who could give head like that, Duo couldn't blame him. Even if he felt like he was still... looking for an angle. "We had a couple of kids join the gang back home because like, dad or stepdad or something wouldn't leave them alone, but mom's new to me." 

Quatre looked at him. "He must trust you to tell you that. There are very few who know about that part of him and it is his secret to talk about, but I can tell you it was as bad or worse than any other abuse you might have come across."

And he was looking at him with those knowing eyes that made him wonder if Quatre knew about his childhood and what a kid on the streets had to do or had done to them sometimes.

Maybe it was the crazy rich people townhouse of people who'd seen some _real_ shit. Sometimes, Quatre understood things too well. He set his duffel bag down on the bed, and then sat on it himself, feeling the mattress bounce a little. "I'm not sure it was trust, it felt like making a point about rich people." He was protective of Quatre, and after the show the night before... yeah. Being in people's heads all the time, seeing shit, feeling shit... "I got into other people's shit too much yesterday. Jumped to conclusions. I'm still sorry about what happened."

"You were trying to help me," Quatre looked at him and there was no judgement or accusation there. "I'm grateful Duo, you've worried about me, and been there despite all this and it's meant a lot to me. Everything you've tried to do has been for me, I understand that." He sat on the bed too, next to him.

Yeah, he still felt bad for showing Wufei what had ended up being a rape video, and half wondered where multiple blows to the head somehow equaled sleeping, just sleeping, with multiple folks in one's bed. That had been... weird, but okay, because sleeping beside Quatre had felt good.

"So what do we do now?"

Quatre quirked a smile at him. "Whatever you want. I had a few more restrictions on me at the start than we do now, mainly because Treize wanted to make sure the staff knew how I was to be treated. That and I was recovering. The house is pretty big and there's a lot of staff - they'll love you. Oh, and the Maes are like the household staff and do the cooking and so on. They are brilliant. I sometimes go and play the piano, the off duty soldiers usually have something going on there - I think there has been a continuous poker game for years there somewhere and there are gyms and a pool. I'll probably look at the network at some point and see if there is anything coming up. What would you like to do?"

"So is this a house, or a little base?" Soldiers and staff? And poker games, okay, he could get in there. Gym was good, too. Noin had been a gym rat and he kind of liked that.

"A bit of both?" Quatre answered. "Headquarters sort of thing, so more of the analysts and things. There are a few to watch for. Really I was allowed a lot of freedom when I was well enough to take advantage of it. Oh! you'll probably have to have a physical with John, he's like Treize's personal doctor, military field trained. Tears Treize off a strip regularly."

He'd probably slept with the guy, Duo decided. He seemed pretty tolerant of dissent and friction, and that was the only way Duo could explain it. Maybe it was like the folks who preferred rough trade; maybe Khushrenada preferred people who'd tell him where to shove it. "Personal doctor, got it." He laid back on the bed, watching Quatre's back, stretching. "How about the uniform shit? What're the rules? Noin wore it pretty much everywhere all the time." 

"Wear the uniform in working hours, for meetings, but back here you can wear what you want," Quatre said. "It's a little disconcerting the first time you see Treize in jeans. My head nearly exploded."

He had a nice ass, it would probably look good in jeans. Lots of folks looked good in jeans, except himself because he had that washboard flat ass going on. "Okay. So civvies off duty, uniform on duty. What do you actually do every day?" Other than plot out huge plans. 

"Well, help out Treize. He doesn't ask for much, I just do what I think he needs to have. I did the plan in my spare time while I was waiting around."

Yeah, that was Quatre. Not even aware of how brilliant he was, and how ridiculously impressive it was he could do that. He’d seen the plan, and it was terrifyingly thorough and detailed. "But now we've had the conference, there will be loads to do, finalising agreements and planning election security and so on."

"Okay. So, we, you and now me, take things off of his plate and help out. Got it. Noin didn't, I mean she wouldn't have stopped me but she wasn't sure what to do with me and I don't like being bored." He plucked at a fuzzy at the back of Quatre's shirt. "Today a work day, or not, or? I'm vaguely aware it's Saturday, but also war stops for no one, and I'm pretty sure election bullshit doesn't either."

"Treize tends not to stop a lot of the time but he is more inclined to stop if I look like I'm tired," Quatre said with a faint smile. Duo appreciated that sneakiness.

He let his hand skim along Quatre's back, thinking for a second. "So the disaster area shit, when he broke down the other day and then in the morning, poof, everything's cool again. He's up and down like that a lot?" He needed to be ready for any volatility, because he was waiting for a turn to violence that just hadn't been there. The night before, Quatre on the roof had been wild, the heat and the...

There was just a hell of a lot to work through in his head.

"Only a couple of times with me," Quatre said, leaning into him a little. "Nobody else sees that. I could say the same about me I suppose. I feel a lot better."

"You look a lot better." He liked the leaning. He did; maybe he wasn't Quatre's thing, but maybe he could be, or at least be there for him until he found himself someone else that fit the bill. It wasn't like they hadn't had a lot of change to deal with, a lot of crazy.

"Duo, I'd also like to get to know you better again," Quatre said and that was a definite positive because the last time they did that they had slept together and wow, yeah he remembered that all right.

Stuck in his mind. Not everything had to be about sex, but if it was good and everyone was happy with it, why not? And feeling Quatre through a T-shirt the night before had been a low key buzz, even if knowing Khushrenada was on Quatre's other side was weird.

But if the sex was good and nobody got hurt... "So, we have our plan for the day. I'm ditching this uniform, you give me the grand tour, and then you and I get reacquainted."

"The most important thing you need to know is how to dial down to the kitchen." Treize was leaning in the doorway, the creepy doorway, watching them both; still in uniform. Absolutely fucking silent when he walked, boots on fucking wood floors be damned apparently. "You may ask for anything you like; you will likely get whatever was being made anyway? Or a sandwich. And the gym is upstairs, which is where I'm headed. Dorothy has released a press announcement on her candidacy. The flood gates open." 

"Do you need us to do anything? Or do we wait for other people to declare their intentions?" Quatre asked. "I'm afraid I'm not quite up to using the gym yet, but I'll have to work doubly hard when I can. Flying a gundam without training is a killer."

Seeing Treize at the gym might be interesting at some point as well. He had a different type of build to most of them, but they had been selected for their builds as much as anything. Slender and small; it cut down on fuel, it cut down on the damage areas, and it allowed the gundam cockpits to be small and leave room for more equipment. Treize was tall, and muscled in a lean, functional looking way, but definitely way bulkier than anyone else Duo had seen in a mech, except Marquise. Even most of the OZ soldiers were smallish and slight. "Still don't think I'll be in one again." He bumped his shoulder against the door jamb, watching them. "I already have the Ops team on their security, coordinating with Sally. This is a good weekend for me to lay low."

"Laying low we can do," Quatre said. "I can show Duo how to call the kitchens and we're going to look around, introduce him to a few people."

This was even more chill than Noin, and Noin he respected. She really would have been the sort of replacement that new OZ, preventers, whatever they were, needed to function. "Thank you." He stepped back from the door, into the master bedroom. Left it open, but moved out of sight. Duo laid his head back down on the mattress, and sighed. The chill factor was sort of appreciated, at least for the moment. "Okay, shitty uniforms off, then."

"I'll see you in a bit," Quatre said, heading off to 'his' room to change, leading Duo to his own devices.

He didn't have a whole lot of clothing that was his, and tended towards serviceable black from habit as much as anything. He could do with some more but if they were allowed out and this wasn't like a house arrest then he would get some soon enough.

Yes the place looked classy and nice and not really the sort of place he would end up in.

Didn't feel like home, but it felt secure. Or, secure-able. He rummaged up black pants, a t- shirt, and started to unpack his duffel. He could make the best of it, yeah. It wasn't long before Quatre turned up wearing really casual attire - more casual than he'd seen before, at least. He noticed it was all soft brush cotton and assumed it was for comfort. Quatre took him downstairs, to work their way up and he was pretty fucking mind boggled by how, no, lax wasn't the word because everyone was sharp, but more… permissive people were than he expected.

The bases he'd been to with Noin had been cold, efficient, punctual. This was... meandering. There were offices, and people were working in them on the first floor, but it seemed casual. There was a lot of chatter in non-universal; he heard all sorts of European languages, and maybe some Hebrew? He wasn't sure, entirely, but the tempo and the feel of the place was. Different. Like they weren't scared that the General lived there and was going to swoop in and kick their asses, which was a reaction Noin had gotten.

It wasn't what he was expecting. He'd half imagined that Quatre had been living in a pedantic purgatory where you were punished for having a button unshined, but this was the opposite. They'd visited some of the 'barracks' areas and they'd welcomed Quatre with great familiarity and seemed to know that he was a Gundam pilot and had heard about his hospital stay.

There were congratulations given, and somewhere in there Duo realized they'd crossed into another building; he wondered how many of the townhouses he'd seen from the outside made up the complex. 

There was a little suspicion of him, or maybe it was curiosity. They relaxed enough when Quatre said hi, and introduced him as a friend. It was pretty obvious a lot of them had figured out he was a pilot, but Quatre left that bit of information to him to decide whether to share.

They ended up at the kitchens. "This is the most important place in the house," Quatre teased. “They do very good food."

"Hey, food's important," Duo grinned, following Quatre into the space; the door and the hallway leading into it were narrow and then it widened up immediately into a space that looked like an industrial kitchen, staffed with one older woman, and a couple of younger guys, and a young woman about their age. 

She was the one who greeted them first. "Quatre! Hello, we saw all the coverage, that was terrible!"

"Hello Lily, this is my friend Duo," Quatre introduced them. "It wasn't the finest landing, I admit. We'd taken a lot of damage and a crash was inevitable unfortunately. Duo, this is Lily - who makes amazing pastries, and her mother Isabella, as well as Sam and George at the back there. They do amazing food for us."

"Hello," George said, pleasantly, while his brother grunted and poked at something on his datapad.

"And for the staff, the diplomats who swan in, the occasional banquet, though it's been quiet for that recently." Isabella bustled over to them. "Another skinny pilot, then, good to meet you."

"Oh, he's another pilot?" Lily seemed impressed. "Which one?"

"The cool one," Quatre teased him slightly.

"Deathscythe. Yeah, the cool one." He grinned at Quatre. "The best one. Except maybe Wing."

"We'll have more snacks around for you, then." She eyed Quatre suspiciously for his thinness, as if it were a subtle rebuke on her cooking, but Lily looked amused and impressed.

"Two Gundam pilots. Wow." 

"Lily is easily impressed," Quatre said even as Lily stuck her tongue out at him and went over to one of the cooling racks.

"Nice gundam pilots deserve my pastries." She brought two over and pointedly gave them both to Duo as Quatre smiled. "If he chooses to share with you he can."

"I'm good with sharing," Duo drawled, handing one over to Quatre automatically.

Isabella looked amused. "There's breakfast every morning -- basics, nothing special. Fruit, oatmeal, yogurt, eggs, bacon, bread. If you have anything you can't eat, let us know. Lunch is a bit of whatever, and if you have any requests for dinner, give us a heads up." She had probably given Quatre the same spiel. "And there's plenty of tea and coffee to be had. The tap water is good in the city, so you don't need to filter."

"There were banquets in Sanc, but they were not a patch on your cooking," Quatre said shamelessly buttering up Isabella. He took a bite of the pastry. "Mm, maple pecan plait."

"What's your favourite food Duo?" Lily asked, smiling at him.

"Pizza?" He answered without having to hesitate or think about it, rocking back onto his heels. "Yeah. I'm from L2, and that was always the big luxury, getting pizza."

"L2?" Lily said. "I could make you pizza - a nice fresh one. Or a calzone. That would be an easy welcome dinner. What would you like on it?" Quatre looked like he was on the verge of giggling and Duo didn't need empathy to know Lily seemed pretty into him.

"Oh, anything. I'm not picky. Just another skinny pilot." He grinned again. "Okay, so now that we know where the heart of the house is. This is... pretty nice place. You guys like working here?"

"Oh yes. This is our house," Lily said. "Our home."

"The commute's easy," George quipped.

"I wouldn't trust anyone else to make sure Treize eats properly," Isabella said. "Although he often has to be reminded. Quatre is very good at that."

Uh-huh. Duo shot him a sly look. "Well, aide-de-camp. That's kinda the job, right? Lady Une did that, yeah?"

"Yes, though she'd forget too and I'd end up sending up something just in hope they would eat it," Isabella said. "What would you like tonight? Pizza as well? I can do a nice salad with it, or you could have the chicken. I'll get some steak for tomorrow."

"The pizza would be nice," Quatre said. "Something different after banquet food."

"Yeah, that would be amazing. Salad's good, green stuff is important." All the nuns seemed to say that religiously. "The banquet food was... weird. Like, vegetables don't need to be pureed. We've got teeth." He grinned a little. So okay, banging the aide-de-camp was a traditional activity for Treize, then, because those nudes of Anne had been... hot, if he was honest.

"We'll do you pizzas," Isabella promised. "And a nice dessert. Any requests?"

"Duo gets to pick." Quatre said. "As it is his first night here."

It was just surreal, food was something he'd obsessed over all his life, never enough for him or his friends and... now this. It was kind of wild, and he had to think for a minute. "Uh. Ice cream? I dunno. I'm just sort of happy with whatever we can find." He gave an honest shrug, looking to Quatre for a cue. Yeah, it was a wild ride in the most unexpected way.

"Keeping it simple then," the cook nodded. "I can do that."

"We better move on, as I've got to show Duo everywhere," Quatre said. "Thank you for the pastries Lily!" They headed out into the corridor and Quatre chuckled. "It will be the best pizza you've ever had. Oh and...I think someone was a little taken with you."

"Yeah. She's cute." Duo shrugged his shoulders as he took a bite, and sighed. "Fuck that's good. Where to next?"

"Up to Ops. I think you might get on well with Veorg if he managed to sleep off the hangover on the flight back." Quatre said. "He keeps trying to steal me off of Treize.”

"Okay. Who is he?" They headed up the central staircase. The place was like a maze, but Quatre knew it well and Duo knew he'd have the place mapped out pretty quickly, too. He was already thinking about where to stick surveillance and where not to.

"Colonel in charge of Comms," Quatre said and smiled. "He was late to his meeting with Treize when he came back from the dead because he'd been smoking outside. Treize likes him, trusts him and Veorg will call bullshit on him, and frequently does."

"And this is like... a treasured and important quality? You said his doctor yells at him. Is it a thing?" Duo munched on the maple thing, enjoying it. Butter sugar, flour, sweet, very nice. "Do you chew him out too?"

"He likes debate. I'm not someone that shouts, but we argue," Quatre said. "The plan -- he let that go forward to debate even though he disagreed with various bits, and he's been arguing his case. He takes a great deal of enjoyment from that. But defying the chain of command once a decision is made - not so much."

"Ah. So there's a line. Got it." So he'd have to keep an eye out when something looked like a done deal. They wandered through to what he thought was one of the side buildings again, and reached an office space kind of area.

There was a guy in uniform, looking kind of casual and harried, and another couple on duty, manning a desk. "Hey Quatre. And, Duo?" The guy quirked an eyebrow at him. "I just popped in to check a few things. Then I can maybe remind myself what my apartment looks like."

"Hi Veorg, Just showing Duo around." Quatre said by way of introduction. "He might be another one that might want to try and poach."

"Yeah? What's your skill?" He sounded open to it. "Are you the guy Noin had around? Maxwell, right? You've smacked every firewall we have."

Got past a couple too, but he didn't need to say everything. "He's amazing at surveillance, programming, anything to do with computers and hardware. He helped me program a translation app in a few hours," Quatre said. "Duo is very good at fixing things too."

"Huh. I'll drop the boss a note, see about it. We sort of just... we're like firefighters. We fix shit when it's broken and in between we get creative," He waggled his eyebrows at them both.

Duo considered that pretty much described what he had been doing. It never occurred to him that it was a legitimate job; he just thought it was filling in the gaps between his real job of piloting.

"Sounds good," he answered. "I'm not the best at diplomatic shit, uh stuff."

"Yeah, neither am I. But back at Cypress, I helped the General string together the comms between these, man, our first suits were shit. They were open bodies." He grimaced, and waved a hand. "Anyway. You can't have diplomats if you don't have comms." 

"Very true, " Quatre said. "For a gundam pilot, it's definitely something we can do. Duo might try out a few things, see what he likes. But I think he might strangle Whittinger so I'm skipping that department."

"I have no idea how that jackass isn't dead yet." 

One of the guys on duty snorted, and Veorg turned to him. "Hey, hey, focus on your solitaire game there, Andersson."

Veorg reminded him of the L2 workers -- seemingly laidback, but worked like hell, got stuff done, made things happen. No fake politeness either, he hated that. "You better go get some rest," Quatre said. "You're tired. I mean, you must be, it was a pretty intense time."

"Yeah, just wanted to make sure the lazy bastards didn't burn the place down in my absence." He tapped the nearest desk, and one of the guys grinned, and leaned back in his chair.

"Not for lack of trying."

"I told you the place is alcohol proof."

"Yeah yeah. Call me if anything comes up you can't handle," he told his desk officers, and looked back up at the two pilots. "You guys had some adventures this week, too. That was impressive piloting."

Quatre wasn't good at taking compliments on his own behalf but apparently was very good at doing that for others.

"Duo protected L2 on his own and then went back to back with Treize and myself to hold the perimeter of Earth. Then he ended up fighting at the Mars base and taking down the last of the mobile dolls that were programmed for suicide runs," Quatre said. "Without him, L2 would definitely have fallen."

"You're leaving out your suicide run into the mobile doll factory's laser," Duo quipped. "Pretty fucking fancy shit. We'll get Sandrock fixed."

"Yeah, never was a good field fighter," Veorg commented. "It's all impressive to me."

"We'll give you a full run down another time. Treize will probably ask you up for drinks at some point," Quatre said, turning to leave. "See you after you've rested."

Duo wondered what he was picking up, but waved to the guy as Quatre led the way out. Okay, maybe something to do while he was there was a good idea, yeah. And more access to all the networks was good. "Just thought you might get on with Veorg," Quatre said. "And I know you are not as comfortable with Treize as I am."

"Nah, it's just." Duo grimaced, and shrugged his shoulders as they walked back to the main part of the building. "He's a weird dude and I don't know him. I just know what OZ did to us, and the myth, and then these weird... glimpses. I don't know."

"I felt the same until I met him," Quatre replied. "But then, I do have an unfair advantage in getting to know people. Just see him as an individual rather than OZ and you can make your own decisions." He smiled. "Come on, we'll skim through the other departments and we might get back in time to see Treize in the gym."

"I don't know if this is my sex drive, your sex drive, or what. But yeah, let's go watch the guy in the gym," Duo smirked, slapping Quatre on the back.

* * *

Over the past few days Quatre had sensed Duo had relaxed quite a bit. He'd gone out on his own a few times, chatted with staff, used his own charm and he could tell when he'd gotten things together in his head a little.

He'd gently flirted with Duo because since the discussion with Trowa and Wufei, he had craved connection and intimacy in a way he couldn't describe. It made him more forward, more wanting than he would be usually and Treize was being ironically careful with him.

His burns were healing over well, he was feeling much better and he was feeling like he wanted a lot more. He wanted Duo, he wanted Treize and that feeling of fullness and it was a want that was turning into a need. He just wasn't sure how to ask.

"Fucking morons." When he tossed it, Treize nearly spiked the data pad onto the arm chair he preferred. The day had already been a bit of a weird one: Duo had gone to see about working with comms, and that had kept him busy. Dinner had arrived in the sitting room, the sort of selection of things that Isabella had decided Quatre responded best to, and it was as good a call to gather as anything.

"Moran from L1 is running now." Oh, so maybe it had been ‘fucking Morans’ not morons.

"Predictable, but irritating," Quatre replied. Treize looked better for regular sleep, and laying low meant he wasn't able to overwork too much. He reached out to see if he could sense where Duo was -- it wasn't as easy as it was with Treize. He was just going to have to be a little more direct with his invitations. He let slip some of his desire and need and let it drift over to Treize and out towards Duo. First come first served.

He watched Treize just about brace himself, felt him respond with want, and then pull himself up a little with control. "And I thought I was the unsubtle one."

"I'm sorry, I just...I know everyone has been being careful of me, and I just...need to feel closeness and more," Quatre said, feeling a little blush rise. It was possibly the most direct he had been.

Treize was still standing by the coffee table, where the plates and dinner were sitting, halfway to unbuttoning his jacket. A wicked smile slid across his mouth. "You could just ask. With words. You want one of us to fuck you."

The blush became worse. "Yes," he said, dipping his head a little. "I find that hard to say out loud." But with his senses, he could say it.

"Have to teach you to use words." Treize left the jacket on his chair, and advanced toward Quatre, still smiling sharply. "You have a lovely voice. Do you have a preference?"

"I want closeness, I want you in me," he said, trying not to be embarrassed any more. "I want to feel you and Duo because I know the two of you can make me feel more."

He was going to try very hard to not be embarrassed, and Treize closed the space between them to kiss him, leaning in.

"Okay, comms is a cool place to oh, god, okay."

"Duo," he murmured even as he kissed Treize. His energy beckoned to Duo, asking and wanting because this felt so good he wanted to share it. Use his words, he needed to use his words. "I...want both of you, please." Saying please seemed incongruous somehow.

"Right into three ways, huh?" Duo closed the door behind him, and edged in, throwing his hat at the chair that seemed dubbed a clothing chair. "Hmn."

"I've been waiting," Quatre said softly. "But you two are so worried about making a move on me and pissing off the other, I end up with nothing."

He kissed Treize again, relishing the contact, the feeling and let a little spill to Duo, just to give a little push. "Hey, I'll have you know that pissing people off is a competitive sport." Duo looked antsy, and Treize stopped, pulled back a little, while Duo slid fingers up under the fabric of Quatre's sweatshirt.

"We could take this to bed, work through this slowly with a little more room," Treize offered.

Duo's touch was like a burning trail on his skin and he nodded. "Yes, slow is good." Quatre answered and started to let the full feeling of his talent flow over the two of them. They would be in no doubt that this was something he wanted.

Treize pulled at Quatre, walking him slowly to the door of the master bedroom. "We'll stop at any time."

"And you don't touch me," Duo said from behind Quatre, a calloused hand sliding against Quatre's spine.

"Just as well, I get all the touching," Quatre said smiling and gods above, he liked that feel up his back and let Treize feel a little of it. The bed, he wanted to be on the bed naked and more of Treize's kisses and Duo's hands. The feel of both of them was indescribably satisfying to some part of himself.

"We can do that. You get to be neutral territory." Treize was thinking of some bit of battleground not far from Luxembourg City that had been traipsed back and forth over. He wanted Quatre and he was holding back, holding himself back with care, skimming Quatre's sweatshirt off, and then half seeming to remember he was the most overdressed of them.

The feeling of being wanted was incredibly satisfying and quenching of a thirst in him he hadn't realized was so desperate. He wanted to rip off Treize's uniform even as Duo was nuzzling into the back of his neck, feeling skin to skin down his spine and he let his pleasure in it flow to Duo and Treize as he reached to help get Treize naked.

"Oh that's weird and overwhelming." Duo pressed against his back and shuddered a little, squirming just as Quatre felt he needed to squirm. "Hang on, hang on..." It was a moment for clothes to fall to the floor, for Duo to fumble buttons and Treize to watch with calm consideration as he got vest and shirt off.

"I... can try and hold it back," Quatre said, facing Treize. He wasn't sure if he could but he wanted that so much.

"No, just..." Treize put his hands on Quatre's shoulders, standing there in his pants and boots, and a sideways smile as he reached back to Quatre, and shared back a little calm control. "We have all the time in the world."

"Yeah, you say that like you're a real temple of control and shit, nah, just..." Duo tugged at Quatre, pivoting him around for a kiss.

He kissed Duo then, different to Treize but gorgeous in his own right, knowing Duo was usually more wild than his other partner. He was grateful for the control because it would have all been over far too soon, and he started to contemplate if it was possible to explode with excitement.

Just bouncing back and forth between them, full of feeling and touch. Duo grasped his face, cupped his jaw gently, and kissed him hard, mouth open. At the same time, Treize wrapped arms around Quatre from behind, pressing his bare chest and stomach against Quatre's back, and rocking his hips, his solid erection against Quatre's ass. He couldn't help it, he flared with a surge of desire and the golden energy, dormant since the overload of anger, flowed again. Duo was smaller, but Treize would prepare him painstakingly. Fuck, the growing size of it, the feel of Treize behind him, holding him tight.

Like he was going to fuck him through their clothes, just pressing, unrelentingly present. "Not physically possible," Treize murmured in his ear, and Duo pulled back a little, watching them both warily for a moment panting from the overflow of Quatre’s desire.

"Sorry Duo, trying to not overwhelm you," Quatre murmured. "Nakedness needed." So quickly, so much, did Duo want to feel or not feel. Treize wanted to feel, and that he could do as he fumbled to try and get it off.

"It's weird. I felt like I was behind you. With an obscenely big dick." Duo gave a shaky exhale, and was giving Treize a dirty look when he took off his own shoes.

"There's lube and condoms in the bedside drawer," Treize murmured, pushing down Quatre's pants, to just beneath the curve of his ass.

"My fault," Quatre said and tried not to laugh. It was their first time together and it was likely to be weird. He let the gold feeling energy send soothing, comforting feelings. It was okay, this was okay, he knew what Treize wanted but what did Duo want?

Duo wanted to be where Treize was, and he did want to touch Treize and the whole thing was freaking him out. Simultaneously. "Here. Duo, come here." Treize kept an arm around Quatre's waist, and with one hand squeezed Quatre's ass. "We'll swap."

"Duo is that okay?" Quatre said softly, worried about if they were pushing Duo too fast. He sent that as a secret worry to Treize; he didn't want to scare Duo off, he wanted him too.

There was speculation, and Duo muttered, "We're really fucking doing this."

"We're really fucking doing this," Treize agreed, pulling away from Quatre and giving Duo space to move behind Quatre. He did, and Quatre felt the difference, of posture, of the type of wanting. The heat was different.

"Oh Christ." Duo sighed as he wrapped his arms tight around Quatre, kissing low on his neck, and rocking against him for a moment. "Yeah, still too many clothes."

He sent gratitude to Treize, along with a promise they would get there, he needed him and wanted him, and encouragement to Duo, feedback of how good it felt, how he wanted more and how hot it was. Everything came off then, he was all pale skin and livid curling scars, but the flush of need was over him.

Duo slipped his pants off, and in the moment of distraction, Treize moved around to Quatre's front, kneeling down to kiss at one hipbone. That was... perfect in a way, pressed between the two of them.

Feeling the two of them making him drift just with the pleasure of their closeness. They didn't have to do more than be there like that and he would be happy - they were close and they wanted him, and he wanted to give them what they wanted so badly.

What they both wanted. Treize kissed the base of his cock, and braced a hand on Quatre's thigh before he began to kiss at the underside of his dick. Quatre felt Duo's dick slide up between his asscheeks, warm and just there, Duo sort of getting his head around it all, sorting out what they were doing. But Duo started to let go of the worry as he peeked down over Quatre's shoulder, and just fell into the moment.

That was good, that felt better and he could finally start to go with it, let that ease of sub-verbal communication start to mix between them with him as a bridge. All three of them , their desire starting to mingle along with their emotions. and he loved it. This time when the energy started to flow from him, it was showing them how thankful and amazed he was at what they were doing. How every kiss on his cock was an ecstacy, how every slide and friction was a calling to deep primal needs.

"Bed?" Duo asked, voice husky and softer in his ear. He angled his hips just so, rubbing the head of his dick against Quatre's hole, leaking precum, a little slick but not enough to do anything with it, just as Treize smirked and sucked on his cock in a slow slurp. 

It was nearly overwhelming and he nodded vigorously even as he made a noise that sounded like a plea as he tried to catch his breath. Aches and pains were forgotten and he had a pounding anticipation that he knew was flooding over the two others like a heart beat of arousal and desire.

Treize, who was much more accustomed to it, even had to brace himself for a moment, sucking in a hard breath when he broke back, forehead pressed against Quatre's stomach for a moment before Duo pulled at Quatre, back to the wide bed. Treize let them move, had the forethought to fish lube and condoms out of the bedside drawer to toss onto the bed.

Thank god one of them was coherent otherwise this could go wrong; a wave of affection curled it's way around Treize for his focus and foresight. "Yes..." he said to Duo's unspoken question about whether he could go ahead. "Yes, fuck yes, both of you." He was going to have them both, he was feeling selfish and possessive and they had said it was okay to feel like that and he did.

He did, and he was going to feel the way he felt, and let it roll. Duo goaded Quatre onto his knees, hands sliding over Quatre's hips. He was half aware of Duo struggling with the lube bottle, felt Treize slide a hand idly over Quatre's back. "Let me put the condom on you. Your hands are shaking."

"How are your hands not shaking? Fuck..."

Yes, Duo was going to let Treize touch him, feel those wonderful fingers so sure and deft against his cock, and Treize would show him what it felt like to be touched by him. Quatre could hear the crackle, then felt Duo's reaction as Treize took him in hand and smiled.

"There." The upside to Treize having worn gloves with his uniforms for years was that his hands were softer than they might have been, and the stroke of his fingers on Duo's length was light. Treize chanced his luck by leaning in to kiss just behind Duo's ear, putting a hand on Duo's hip to help steady him. "Take your time slicking his ass."

Treize had enjoyed that, was enjoying the visuals of the two of them and Quatre made himself comfortable in a position and tried to relax. He wanted to kiss Treize as he was being stretched, he wanted to suck him and taste him.

It was enough to get Treize to kneel on the bed with Quatre, while Duo slid one finger carefully into his ass. "One at a time, not flexible enough for both," he teased, running a hand through Quatre's hair. He was still wearing his pants and boots, for all that his dick was tenting those pants hard; maybe it was to reassure Duo.

"Not yet," he managed with a hint of bravado that was just lust rather than reality talking. One finger was fine, he knew that. He'd done this before, he was okay and wanted to reach and pull Treize to kiss him but couldn't. Experimentally, he sent the memory sensation of his fingers on Treize's neck to gently pull him to his lips.

He felt and heard the other man sigh, tilting his head into the touch that wasn't as he unbuttoned his uniform pants, pulling his dick free of his boxers, as Quatre had asked.

Duo was becoming lost in the process of fingering his ass, and he waited until Treize brought his erection to him, easy as anything so he could suck and taste.

Treize slid in closer, sitting on the bed in a way that wouldn't give him the best range of motion as he slid a hand into Quatre's hair, encouraging him to start using his mouth. He was thick, solid, and wary of choking or hurting a partner. He loved having him there, taking it steadily to suck on him as Duo moved two fingers inside of him, and he just felt like there was nothing but the sensations and the feel of Treize and Duo around him. He felt wanted in a very deep primal way and that helped motivate him.

Quatre slipped into the rhythm of what he was doing, of the sensation, felt Duo add a third finger, and more lube, stretching him until it ached a little, and then easing his fingers back; in front of him, Treize shifted and kept focused, kept touching Quatre as he sucked on the head of his cock and stroked a hand along the length. "Lovely."

He sent the impression of pleasure at the praise, and pleasure at the sensations to Duo. He bent with will to take Treize in his mouth as much as he could, making a meal of it. He wanted Duo to start, but had to trust he knew when that would be.

"Shhh, just enjoy yourself..." Treize traced fingers idly along his neck, just as he felt a thicker press against his asshole, felt Duo clutch one callused hand against his hip, leaning in as he knelt between Quatre's legs.

He gasped around Treize's length and groaned against his heat as Duo pushed in slowly and deliberately. It burned, it felt like it was just what he wanted and the connection snapped into place with Duo. The pleasure was flowing, the golden energy flowing again, him giving that intimacy to his friend and lover. If it was like this with Duo, then Treize would be another level deeper and he couldn't wait. He ached for that connection more than anything.

He felt Treize reach back to him, rocking his hips just a little, slowly, sharing a deep need that was coiled in him, things he wanted to do to Quatre but thought were too risky, times he'd wanted to just fuck him in public during the meetings, fantasies, while Duo groaned and started to fuck Quatre harder. "Oh christ, oh christ, I can feel all of that, I can, Quatre..."

There, there was the spot and bursts of white out pleasure scattered their way through the link and he delved deep into those thoughts and fantasies absorbing them and the need behind them as if they were some form of nourishment handed to him on a platter. He wanted to share them, give them back and he shared some of his own to the both of them. This here and now, times with them alone, times with them together; there could be no doubt they were needed and wanted.

Or, there could be doubt, but not in the moment; for the moment, everything overflowed, feelings curling against other sensations, sliding wild rather than slow and controlled and careful as Duo started to fuck him with abandon, and Treize struggled to keep his grasp of control out of a concern for safety.

It was okay, he was tougher, more resilient than he looked and he rode the crest of that wave, not wanting to come with it, knowing that would be him out for the night. He had enough focus for that as the slick and slide made him curl around Duo mentally, urging him to find his climax. When he did it exploded through them all but he held onto himself, that control and fed it back to them all.

He half swore he heard Treize whine with the effort to not move, while Duo swayed on his knees, panting and clutching hard at Quatre's hips. "What, what was that, that's crazy, Quatre..."

It wasn't even the most he could do. "Thank you," it was a habit to say it but it felt too much like a gift to not be instinctively grateful. "Swap?"

Treize half laughed, and laid back on the bed for a moment, one leg folded under himself as he caught his breath. He was still hard, but felt a little shaky, maybe overwhelmed, and reached a hand down to squeeze Quatre's shoulder. "Only if you're sure."

"I trust you," and it was a simple thing but Treize's energy reacted to it warmly, gratefully. Treize reacted to it looking at him and he nodded just a little.

Trust was hard come by, often lost quickly in the people, the friends, Treize dealt with. Duo was easing out of him, while Treize moved, easing Quatre up again, supporting him with his hands and then his body to lean into him until all three of them were kneeling upright on the bed again and Treize was kissing his wet mouth. Duo was shakey behind him, breathing hard and trying to process what had happened, what was going on, but finding it all hot.

They had overwhelmed him a little, even without trying. "Duo could hold me up," he murmured into the kiss. His arms might not hold him, maybe he could have help. He wanted to do this, and take the time needed.

"This isn't like some weird sexy nightmare at all," Duo muttered against his neck, moving away and around, slowly swapping positions with Treize. "We can lay down."

Treize gave a shaky exhale, and ran a hand back through his hair. "That would be perfect."

Perfect, perfect, holding on to Duo and then relaxing, Quatre, looked back at him and smiled, beckoning him on to action. It wouldn't take much once Treize managed to get in, but that might take a bit of work -- though Duo had stretched him well.

He sprawled onto Duo as they laid back on the bed, Duo wrapping his arms tight around him while Treize knelt between them tangled legs, hands lingering on Quatre's skin.

Quatre could see Duo's eyes widen at the size of Treize, half turned on half almost worried on his behalf but he was sure he could do it. He shifted to find a stable comfortable position in Duo's arms and relaxed. He sent reassurance he wanted it, he could do it and hoped Treize's protective streak did not have him reconsidering.

The man clearly enjoyed all possible sex acts, but the careful streak came from experience on all ends of what could happen. He laid close in Duo's arms, felt Treize leaning in to kiss his back while he slid two slicked fingers in with care.

He wiggled a little. Duo was bigger than that and he sent impressions of where that standard was because he wanted more and he had to admit he was still wanting it badly.

Treize added more lube, and a third finger, and yes, he could feel it there that his hands were bigger than Duo's.

Better. He wanted to feel all of Treize, there was a craving for it that underpinned all of his feelings and pleasure. Quatre reasoned he would get there quicker if he could relax more so he used some of the golden feeling energy on himself, not channelling it out, but in towards making his muscles relax.

After a few moments, Treize seemed satisfied and he heard the sound of foil, felt fingers on his back again. Finally. Even prepared as he was, Treize felt huge against him. He felt like he had to spread his legs wider to fit him in, though that was just a thought. There was just a tinge of nervousness which he banished as he pushed in with infinite slowness and control.

Treize kept one hand on Quatre's hip, fingers of his other hand sliding between Quatre and Duo's bodies, to stroke at Quatre's dick. He felt when the head pressed in and settled, felt Treize go still for a moment. Then he felt a questioning feeling, checking that he was all right. It was easy to open their link a little more so Treize could have the security of knowing exactly if he was feeling strained. It was so easy to do, and it got him a millimetre by millimetre push inwards in a way that drove him completely crazy.

He could feel how much the other man enjoyed it, enjoyed knowing Quatre was enjoying it, a reciprocal loop of sensation as Treize reached about halfway in and started to rock.

He couldn't help the groans, and he felt himself working looser until the burn became something more. He moved himself and started to sink deeper into his senses like he had with Duo. The feel of it was so in the moment he couldn't think about anything else aside from the pressure. And the slide, he felt his first draw back and push forward with an intensity that made his legs shake.

More, he needed it all. A connection was reaching for him if he could just dive deeper.

He could feel Treize relaxing, feel him letting his control slip slowly, felt more from him, fell into the slow steady motion of being fucked, deeper, until Treize's hips smacked against his ass, and Duo squirmed a little beneath him.

Quatre clung on tightly knowing he was gasping at each thrust and letting himself spin into pleasure. He let the golden energy flow over them all. Quatre felt himself grasping for emotions, needing to know he was wanted again and Treize wanted him with an intensity right now that blazed. It filled him with a different type of orgasmic pleasure different to physical climax.

It was more important, to be so desperately wanted, to feel that want and desire, bright and hot. And Duo holding on beneath him started to kiss him, wanting him, wanting to keep him sane and okay. But Treize wanted more, to assuage that deep buried loneliness that sometimes managed to surface.

They didn't have to feel that, not linked as they were, they could just feel the bliss of being connected. It was the best feeling, the only feeling and he felt the energy rise with each thrust until he was blinded by energy and came crying.

It wasn't quite a blackout, but when he was able to put words together and make sense of things as something other than a smear of light, he was still laying on top of Duo, and Treize was sprawled out beside them, holding Quatre's hand.

He was exhausted but filled with an afterglow of a faintly literal type. He felt fantastic, and comfortable, mellow, wanted and cared for and knew he was emanating something similar to the others. "Mmm..."

Treize brought his fingers up to his mouth, kissed them, kissed his knuckles, basking in it; Duo felt lazy and disjointed. "That... was crazy. Wow."

"That was...fantastic," Quatre said, shifting a little to stop crushing Duo. He felt open and raw in all the good ways. "Sorry Duo, I was going to...introduce you slowly to things but um..." This was the opposite of slow.

That was headfirst into the deep end of the pool. "Yeah. Carried away." Duo exhaled, and hadn't moved yet, stretching a little but not leaving. "Wow."

And Treize was contemplative, quiet. He reached out on the connection, a wordless but intense feeling of curiosity.

Quatre reached back, and the link was more solid, the feeling more satisfying. "So, I probably should have said, things can spill over." He wanted to cuddle in with them both and sleep. "I am very grateful you both did that for me."

Treize shifted, letting go of Quatre's hand to finally kick off his boots and shuck off sweat soaked pants. "That was amazing. I..." It took the words from Treize, just left a glow for the moment.

"Jesus." Duo turned a little, sitting up to look at Quatre, and Treize as he got himself undressed fully. "No wonder you're in each other's pockets."

"Did I freak you out?" he asked. "The connection." He still held onto Treize just in case.

"Yeah it's weird. But it's kinda compelling." Duo put a hand on Quatre's chest, over his heart. "What is it?"

"Part of what has been happening Duo," he said looking up at him. "I called it spaceheart but I'm not sure. I used to have it a little, now... it is more." So much more and he could feel Treize there, constantly there where the emptiness had been and it was an incredible relief.

To not feel empty. To feel... present, to feel someone who cared. "So this, that one night, what happened with Zechs, it's all the same?"

"No, I...I .." Was it the same? It felt different. "That's part of what I need to figure out. I had an urge, a need for closeness that was… intense." Overpowering in fact, but he had resisted it.

Until then. And now he had the closeness, Treize stretching out beside him, Duo sitting there with a hand on his chest. "What did it feel like?" Treize asked that, still feeling curious and thoughtful. Quatre could feel him flexing, testing whatever it was he had, sparked with curiosity, but he was afraid to use it, touch it, and nothing in the situation called for it. Everything was warm and glowing and Treize very distinctly didn't want to lose that feeling of not being alone. And Quatre could feel that. 

"Amazing," Quatre said and smiled. How could he not smile with that warmth there. He could feel Treize like that but not Duo. Possibly because he hadn't bonded with him as much. "I can sense you there, poking at it." It was not dissimilar to the connection they had already, but it was like someone had taken a rickety ad hoc bridge made out of rotten logs between them and replaced it with a solid stone bridge.

"It's fascinating." Treize rolled onto his side, toward Quatre, and Quatre felt Duo's tamped down unease spike up a little before he leaned in to kiss Quatre.

"Psychic friends club. Jesus."

Quatre chuckled but just had the thought that Duo went along with something he was not completely comfortable with and that worried him a bit. "Are you okay though?" he murmured. "That was intense all round."

"Yeah. It was good. It was. Just..." Duo rapped his temple with two fingers, and laid back down against Quatre, half on him, eyes closed. "A thing. Memory thing, stuff. Shit, you know."

"I'm sorry.." He felt bad about that. "Maybe you'll allow me to help you at some point soon? " He wanted to do that but right now he would be doing nothing. He felt mellow and tired and filled with all the endorphins in the world.

"Sure." He still sounded wary, and leaned up a little to peek over at Treize. "How was it when he went through your messed up shit?"

"Painful," Treize said thoughtfully. "Hallucinatory. But it improved on the whole." And now he could clearly see through the link that during most of it Treize had been alert, not shut into a trance like state, as Zechs has been. "I'm able to... approach it." 

"I think if I do it consciously rather than being sucked into it, it'll be much easier," Quatre said, yawning a little. He knew it helped - being able to have the rooms decorated would have been impossible even only a month before for Treize.

"We can do it with preparation this time." Treize leaned down a little to pull at the duvet, to pull it over them. "Sleep for a bit, and then I'll drag dinner in here."

"Hmm." Duo seemed to find that acceptable, burrowing in against Quatre.

That sounded nice and Duo felt nice. Quatre let his eyes closed, his mind apparently satisfied that he had managed to fill the empty place at least for the time being.

* * *

It had been a week since, and everything felt... settled. Bearable. It was very good to be back on his home turf, and to not have to put on a command performance for hundreds of people every day; he wasn't having to parry back words and be sure of his nuance. It wasn't as if he'd stopped working, but it was restful. He could stop and watch the street from his desk, and he could chat with Quatre between meetings, many of which Quatre attended and pretended to be non attentive at, much to Treize's deep amusement. Veorg has apparently sucked Duo into his realm, and that seemed to please both pilots.

Everything was... functioning.

Quatre seemed to have settled down a bit as well, with the erratic nature of his gifts either not being provoked all the time, or he had evened out. He caught him making notes a few times, and looking a little pensive and thoughtful and he'd confessed he was worried because he didn't know if this was normal or what was happening.

Duo seemed a bit curious as well, but Quatre mainly focused on the work that was around rather than that from what he could see.

There was plenty of work to do; coordination between the organizations, planning for security for the elections, the disarmament, the inspections of facilities at L3, which Noin was leading starting the next day. Treize didn't dare, just because it was too likely he'd end up catching a bullet with his skull.

And then there was Mariemaia. The last conference call had ended some time before, and he'd taken the last part of the afternoon to go through files -- what Sally had sent him on what she had been able to piece together so far, after he'd sent along their mother's voluminous hospitalization records, and Vingt's shorter records.

They were only shorter because he'd died too young to really get going, and Treize mused that his own records were injury and not mentally based because he'd hidden any problems so very well. And then there were the files he'd received that morning and had been putting off on reading until he had privacy. Of a sort.

Early research on newtypes - historical and not necessarily ethical. It wasn't the sort of experimentation he would condone in a million years but the result might hold answers. Quatre didn't hide a lot from him, so he knew that he fretted about whether he had subconsciously forced them to have sex because he was desperate for intimacy.

It was the same kind of thing he worried about -- if what he was consciously aware of like throwing a chain on someone and yanking them up, then what might he be doing at a subconscious level? Vingt has been convinced that Heero Yuy and Ein Yuy had  
some kind of compulsion or crowd control, which he thought rather insulting, as the video recordings, or even the flat written words of their speeches were still stirring and impactful.  
Vingt has wanted to believe their mother was right, more strongly than he wanted to hew to reality.

The early experiments looked to have been what he expected; starting with staid testing, and escalating as researchers did to ever more medical and creative work. It looked like most of the time any ability was minimal, or barely measurable - or so erratic as to produce frustrating test results. But things started to pop out.

_Subject 29; volatile behaviour in the extreme. Documented spontaneous manifestation of pyrokinesis following an outburst of anger at current test and situation._

That was understandable, but it demonstrated the ability had existed before, because a firestarter was going to attract attention from all agencies.

And there were more, the longer he read.

_Subject 36; terminated. Suffocated tester before security arrived._

That one felt familiar, but he kept reading; there were people who could read minds, people who could move things, people who could speak without their mouths, and finally, subject 71.

_Subject 71: Empathic abilities. Minimal at outset, but severe stress and trauma appeared to trigger development._

Nearly dying, saving the world and so on would count as stress and trauma.

_Subject 71 developed the ability to manipulate and project emotions. Extreme distress occured if they were kept in isolation with a compulsion to bond to other humans if left in this state. After a 20 day isolation in solitary, the resulting psionic effects were able to override the will of others in proximity._

That was something to turn over in his mind, sitting back from his desk for a moment. Quatre had gone to drag Duo to the pool, and he could feel him on the link, mellow, enjoying himself, an emotion he could reach into and feel, if he cared to. The connection itself was damn relaxing, something he could reach out to Quatre on with ease.

20 days of solitary confinement, and subject 71 had moved far into the compulsion Quatre had described. He started to go through the notes, looking for more on the compulsion, if there was anything.

_Subject 71 has been doggedly pursuing two specific members of the research team in particular Dr J and assistant T. He has been unable to explain why except to verbalise they needed him. It was discussed in depth about whether to allow contact. Assistant T volunteered to allow him what he needed to do._

_After allowing contact, both Assistant T and subject 71 lost consciousness. Both regained alertness, with altered blood sugar. After allowing contact, it was determined that Assistant T had 'bonded' with subject 71, and subject 71 expressed continued interest in contact with Assistant T._

That sounded very similar to what had happened between himself and Quatre.

_Subject 71 abilities increased following this initial bonding (see fig 2 for comparative result), but his behaviour became more erratic. It appear that he desired sexual relations with Assistant T, despite identifying as heterosexual in intial baseline testing._

_Assistant T did not wish to do this, resulting in outbursts and long periods of depression from Subject 71._

_After 30 further days of this behavior, Dr. J discovered Assistant T and Subject 71 in an act of sexual congress. Assistant T requested reassignment to L1. Subject 71's distress increased; Dr J considered further research too risky and Subject 71 was terminated two years into the project._

_See annex e for further details of reports associated with Subject 71._

Quatre had described it as a compulsion, but he hadn't realized how literal that was.The strong implication was that Subject 71 had psychically coerced the Assistant into sex in response to need and that made Quatre's concerns not over the top worries but rather legitimate.

Except Treize knew he was bisexual, with a strong leaning toward men. Once in a while a woman crossed into his interests, but men were... more often interesting. He enjoyed getting fucked, though it hadn't been on his list of interests since his time in house arrest. It hadn't felt as if he'd been compelled to anything, and honestly except for Duo's nerves, which Treize put down to him personally, the entire thing had been deeply enjoyable.

He didn't feel compelled to do it. Treize started to look for annex e when a video call came in, Anne.

"Your Excellency," she said. "Treize..." That was unexpectedly familiar. She very rarely called him by his first name unless they were in person.

He gave her a smile, because it was always good to see her, and it was good to see but she was doing well and was healthy. Working for him had not given her any peace. "Lady. Always good to see you. I'm sorry we didn't have time to talk at the meetings." 

"I felt most neglected," she said with a smile that was gently teasing. "How are you after your defense of Earth and Space?"

"Tired," he offered honestly. "I've recovered enough to resume normal activity. I heard you comported amazingly in your defence of L1 and Earth."

"For a kingdom that is a bastion of peace, it has been attacked far too often," She said with that same inflection of mild distaste he knew that he used. "I called to discuss some troublesome reactions to the news that the Gundam pilots are to be formally pardoned."

Of course it hadn't been to just catch up. "Yes, I've been trying to keep on top of the news but..." only so many hours in the day, and when she said news she meant deeper; she made good Intel reports.

"Agitators are to be expected," she answered, "But things seem to have gone beyond the normal reactions. There is a group that has formed and is growing in numbers."

"Are you saying we should expect an assassination attempt on them?" It has been a very long day and he was struggling to remember if they had all been publicly identified, or quite which organizations had that information other than their own.

"The exact nature of the threat is difficult to determine. Indications are that they might try to abduct them all, either for interrogation or for a political statement. They want all of them."

"That's unacceptable." He sat back in his chair. "Please send me everything you have. This is clearly the target that's the easiest." Two pilots for the price of one, in the middle of an urban city center. 

"Of course sir." Old habits died hard. "We have only just received the intelligence so have comparatively little, but I thought you should know. You seem very fond of 04."

He inclined his head slightly. "I am. He's a brilliant mind. It's not going to go well for anyone who tries this."

"I have Heero under surveillance here." Lady Anne smiled a little. "And he is running his surveillance on my surveillance. I have warned the others as well."

He didn't doubt Dorothy and Sally were on top of it, and that as Anne had implied, they were all extremely capable. "I've been trying to give them a sense of normalcy, but I'll talk to them this evening, if Heero hasn't already spoken with Duo." He was unfortunately starting to refer to them by their names rather than their numbers, and he couldn't quite put a finger on when that had started.

Thankfully, it had possibly been before he'd rolled a condom over Duo's dick. 

"He may have done. 01 is so used to doing things alone communication slips down his priorities," she replied. "I have passed the message on to 03 and 05. It is possible however they could potentially target anyone who had piloted a Gundam - which would include yourself and Zechs."

He was mostly sure he managed to cover a reflexive grimace. Particularly since he was already there with Duo and Quatre, making his home a deeply target rich environment. "Is there more good news to add to that?"

"That is all at the moment," she said. "I just wanted to ensure your recovery was going well. I am not blind to the severity of your injuries, even though you made a good performance of normality." A familiar tone -- she used to gently berate him about his health or injuries as his aide.

"If you're not blind to it, then I didn't do such a good job at performing normality?" He gave her a smile, at least at the acknowledgment. "I'll be up to my usual strength soon."

"Treize, the entire world saw you bleed from the nose and have to leave a banquet abruptly," Lady Anne said lightly. "Though I now am not your aide, I cannot completely let go of years of concern."

And the funny thing was that was the least of his concerns. But no one could see his aching skull. "The entire world also saw me nearly assassinated. A little nose bleed is nothing. It's an ongoing complication from the war. My doctors weren't best pleased that I was fighting in a suit again."

"I do feel sorry for John Watson sometimes," she answered smiling. "Perhaps when the elections are over we can truly catch up. I believe you owe me dinner for making me believe you died."

"I was planning to travel back to Sanc in a couple of weeks to see about Mariemaia. If you're available then..."

"That would be perfect," she said with a nod. She could be truly stunning when she chose to be; he had a history there and he did care about her. It was also rather clear what she was angling for.

Everything had gone very badly, and her loyalties had clearly realigned, though, and it was complicated. She had given every signal that she wanted a fairytale sort of ending and it wasn't anything he was capable of or interested in.

"I'll let you know, pending of course, a hostage situation because we don't have enough to deal with."

"Of course. A pleasure as always, your Excellency," she said as she signed off.

He closed his eye for a moment, and tucked all of that information into the back of his mind. They all had enemies, aggrieved parties who wanted revenge; this stretched back longer than the pilots, but they had dazzled and burned through the world harder in a year than most people did in a lifetime.

Treize stretched his shoulders, and resumed looking at annex e, on subject 71.

It made for disturbing reading. Many of the experiments were exactly the sort of thing that Quatre feared would happen to him if he was sent to a lab. Some things tallied up with Quatre's experience, others, he seemed to have bypassed intently. Subject 71 had a tendency towards self harm as a means of 'trying to relieve other people's pain.'. He'd never seen that possibility in Quatre's mind for a start.

It was unsettling to read about, and he wondered what sort of broken mind would settle on that as a viable solution to anything.

Quatre also hadn't shown any of the desperate pleas for contact that had wracked and disturbed the whole process of two years of experimentation, but he also hadn't been denied that contact when he requested it.

Perhaps that had been the difference, or that Quatre had better mental discipline. The mention of ear bleeds had him raising his eyebrows on his own behalf, especially the medical information that indicated that sudden mental exertion could cause weak blood vessels to burst. The medical scans of active use was fascinating with alterations in all brainwave patterns that had a distinct look to them. It seemed… a little familiar looking. There was a pattern there in a lot of the brainwave data for a lot of the newtypes that looked similar to a pattern in the Zero simulations.

He wasn't sure about the quality of the translation in a few places, and decided it was best to move it to his datapad and review it with Quatre and allow him to review it in the original Universal. The language had meandered a bit in the last nearly 60 years, so the occasional glitchy phrase was understandable.

Quatre was back in their rooms, working on some part of the proposals in the plan that they had ended up being tasked with. Treize was pretty sure that he was secretly keeping tabs on progress with other delegations and coordinating the people who were actually doing the work; he knew he had spoken frequently to Samuel Winchester a few times for a start. It occurred to him that Quatre definitely had the Newtype speed of processing and enhanced reflexes. He was greeted as was common now, with the welcoming flood of energy pleased to see him.

It felt undeniably good; relaxing, as he walked up to Quatre, tapping the data pad on his thigh thoughtfully. It was going to be a long evening, discussion focused, and he was tired and wanted out of his uniform; and his mind was busy with trying to sort out everything he had read about subject 71. "I'm afraid I don't have any good news today."

"Come and sit with me," Quatre said looking up. "Does that mean there is bad news?" He wasn't sure where to begin. With the research or the news about a group after them.

Neither was good, and both were pressing in different ways. "Yes." He started to unbutton his jacket, handing Quatre his data pad for a start. "More pressingly, I just took a call from Anne about some intel she's received about a threat to you pilots."

Quatre nodded. "That is a predictable outcome," he said, not sounding at all surprised. "It was only a matter of time before the gloss of our actions wore off." He gave a faint smile. "Saving the world twice is not enough it would seem."

"Weeks is a bit short, though. You still have some bruising." He sat down, legs stretched out in front of him, feeling restless and tired all at once. "It's infuriating. Anne was going to send me what she has. You and Duo are both targets, of course, so I'll need you both to stay close. I'll have a few words with security."

"Mm. We'll be on guard," Quatre said, sounding calm. "Duo is well positioned to monitor as well. I guess we'll look over the intel when she sends it over." He obviously had predicted it somewhere, but a confirmed issue was different to a predicted one.

He would settle with the idea, but for the moment thinking of captivity set his nerves on edge. The report hasn't helped that, either, because Quatre wasn't subtle and he was at an extra level of risk. "I dislike the idea of someone directly threatening you. We have enough to do."

He looked at him. "I am used to threats. Do you want me to be more discrete?" he asked, frowning a little. "Or something? What do you want me to do?"

"It's not that. It's this." He pulled at the link a little, drawing attention to it even as he settled more deeply into it, unable to hold back the tamped down fear and anxiety that had lurked at the edges of his mind as he'd read the file. And while he did that, he opened the document. "A newtype experimentation program led by earth and L1 scientists in the early 140s."

"Oh." Quatre murmured. "That's...you feel worried." That was a charitable way of describing it.

"Yes. I'm concerned. No one... quite exactly like either of us, but there are pieces there. Subject 71 was illuminating." He let the connection stay at that level, and didn't sit back more than enough to let go of the pad and let Quatre have control of it. "They were all terminated, of course, so we don't know the long term impacts of any of it."

He turned to that and he could feel him reading, and his growing concern and upset. "This is horrifying," he said finally. "This could have been me."

"Yes. Yes, it very clearly could have been you. There are differences, you're clearly much more stable. Subject 71 clearly had an... disturbed grasp of reality, with self harm." But the compulsion, that sounded very similar. Treize focused a little, a hand on Quatre's back as he sat close, trying to not feed into that concern with his own.

He could feel Quatre struggling with the information, fear tinging his thoughts as what had been done to the burgeoning newtype Subject 71. "I understand the impulse though. I felt like it a lot when I was younger , I just didn't quite act on it." He paused a moment. "I think I've been doing the same though, trying to connect with people."

"You've connected with people." He did wonder what had driven that moment with him and Duo, what underlying urge had set that off, though it had been a banner event.

"I'm not sure," Quatre answered the question in his thoughts. "I think it was feeling like I had lost the chance of a deeper connection with Trowa. I felt desolate and...lonely. Do you want me to show you?"

"Please." If he understood it better, he could help; they could forestall any of the circumstances that had led subject 71 to become so unstable.

Quatre let slip a brief hint of what had been going on for him. The emptiness and hollowness reminded him of some of his darkest times where he slept with most of the officers he knew, an aching need for something constant there as an anchor otherwise he could fly out of control. Quatre had been ruthless on himself, even as when he looked at Treize and Duo, it burned in him. Water before a man dying of thirst, food before the starving and a continual need for a mastery of will that he felt himself likely to lose.

He let himself feel that, really feel it rather than note it and gently deflect it. Once he was sure it was the same kind of feeling, he shared it back to Quatre, some of his less well balanced times, because there was a difference between being lonely and alone as a singular case in the world.

He felt Quatre's instinctive empathic embrace, the emotional equivalent of the hugs that held him together as he came apart and the younger man leaned to kiss him in reassurance. "So you feel that too sometimes."

"Never seemed to fix anything, but." He'd had the compulsion, but the sex had mostly been very good, very very good at least. Quatre was close and comfortable, and... it was a relief. He wondered how often Quatre had felt relief, raw relief at getting a connection near what he was looking for.

"I have only felt the relief with... you and the other pilots," Quatre said thoughtfully. "There is a point of correlations there.” He seemed to be thinking, rapidly assessing information.

"You and Zechs for me. After he came back from his first self imposed exile." Everything else had been... marking time by comparison. "But what is it?"

"I don't know, I've only felt the compulsions around them as well," he answered. "There has to be a common factor. My mind and body believes it is needed."

Perhaps there had been Newtypes undetected in the testers themselves. "I simply feel alone." Deeply, gnawingly alone, because he didn't belong with his peers, and he hadn't... ever quite been what he'd needed to be, for anyone.

It was making his head hurt. "I don't usually think about any of this; it's maudlin, and pathetic, and goes better with a drink." 

"I think it's the newtype seeking other newtypes," Quatre said slowly. "In pure speculation it is possible the other pilots are too, or... the other factor we all share is we all could pilot using Zero. When Trant tried, it sent him irretrievably mad."

"He shouldn't have tried it. I'd expected better of Trant, given his brother's sacrifice." He focused, settling on the feel of Quatre's back against his spread hand, the sofa against the back of his thighs. "We had pilots die from the sheer strain of flying a gundam, without Zero."

"Heero's physical resilience and strength far exceeds most of ours, Trowa's spatial awareness is exceptional, they all have attributes beyond the norm," Quatre answered, obviously mentally cataloguing the traits noted in the research. "Surviving the unsurvivable, that’s Duo." He was thinking of his own experiences as well. He looked through the reports some more frowning. "This, these brainwave patterns, they remind me of the effect Zero has on the brain."

"They reminded me of that as well." He closed his eye, coasting for a moment on Quatre's thoughts and emotions, mulling over his own views on it. Quatre didn't need to be concerned; he was going to protect him from any kind of experimentation. But they did need to work out together how they were going to... keep things from going sideways. For either of them. For any of them.

"Treize," Quatre said and there was a hint of dread in his voice. "Did I...make you and Duo have sex with me?"

"I don't think so." He offered it honestly, though he really didn't have a way of knowing. "I very much enjoy having you in bed with me. It's..." It was easy, not uncomplicated, but he didn't struggle with it the way that he did with some of his relationships or partners over the years.

"I need to ask Duo. He was uncertain and I breezed right past his objections," Quatre said clenching his fingers into the palm of his hands.

Treize felt it, and shifted a little, moving his free hand to unknot Quatre's fingers. "He was uncertain about having me there. I'm sure I looked every bit the sexual predator," Treize offered lightly, "and that can be off putting."

"You looked sexy as all hell in my opinion," Quatre said. "I can't say that I regret it, I feel you constantly. It's like not being alone. I have a link to Duo, and I needed that too."

The hand at Quatre's back moved slowly, lingering at the nape of Quatre's neck, petting through the soft hair there. "You're not alone any more."

"Neither are you," Quatre answered. "I'm not going to run off in the middle of the night or turn on you. I'm not sure that is possible linked like this."

Everyone else had managed it, Zechs included. It was an uncharitable thought, because they were allowed to live their own lives, but that last potential betrayal by Noin had put him right into a tailspin. Subject 71 gave him something to think about, in that light. "I wonder what this impacts in the long term."

"I don't know." He gestured to the datapad. "I'm now beyond where their experiments finished. I'm..what if this keeps growing stronger?"

"What if." And what the hell was he, or any of them? How did any of it work? "We'll have to pay attention to what you're feeling." And in a worst case scenario, he had something of use, though he was outclassed in power.

"But not in skill," he replied. "And bear in mind you have a concussion still. Can I have a copy of the files to analyse their data?"

"Please. You'll make better sense of it than I will." He twisted a little, quirking an eyebrow at Quatre as he looked at him. "I don't know what damage from the concussion is going to be permanent, so I've resigned myself to dealing with things as they are."

"I will improve, and you know you don't have to live with the constant headache," he smiled a little. "That was how this whole thing started anyway." The head massage that had drained away pain and woken up images.

And had slipped through things he didn't want to think about. "I'm unaccustomed to casual affection. I don't think to ask for things like that." Usually it had always been someone trawling for power, but of the two of them, Quatre was on his way up in the world and Treize was headed out and down.

"Then you won't be irritated if I offer?" Quatre asked hopefully. "I can feel when it hurts you but me taking painkillers does nothing." His hand reached to stroke through his hair at the temple. "I need practice."

And that was how they so often ended up tangled up together on the sofa, fishing a datapad out from between the cushions. "Practice on me." The touch of fingers against his skin was relaxing.

The fingers stroked gently. "I'm going to try and just remove the pain and not trigger anything else," he said. They were soothing touches, warm and golden and some of the pain ebbed away. "I need to see if healing was an ability."

He closed his eye, and leaned into the contact, an arm still wrapped around Quatre. To just shake off a little of that constant nagging pain was an immediate improvement. "Oh, that helps."

"Oh good, I'm trying to do it slowly, more controlled," Quatre said. "See if it works." His fingers were deliciously relaxing.

It felt like something cricked in his neck unraveled, an almost orgasmic release of knotted up pain. "Oh, fuck."

Quatre felt delighted. "It's working then?" he asked. "Shall I keep going?" It was almost a teasing question, because he showed no signs of stopping.

"Yes, please." He liked the way Quatre responded to even the slightest encouragement, and Christ that was a good feeling. Slow and steady seemed to reach a little deeper, and he had the oddest urge to sneeze, like he just stepped out into bright sunlight.

"Hey, I intercepted dinner on the way up, and... goddamnit could you guys just hang a tie on the door or something." 

"Duo!" Quatre greeted him. "I'm seeing if I can remove pain with a level of control, without triggering a linking incident. Got any aches and pains I can try it out on after I turn Treize to mush?"

Treize waved a free hand at Duo, closing his eye again. "He's trying to take my headache away."

"You have a headache? I just thought you took pain pills for fun." He could hear Duo setting something down, but was mostly focused on the lingering strange feeling of pain easing back.

"He had a serious concussion and issues from the battle with Wufei that had...significant impact," Quatre mentioned. "If there's one thing I want to work out if I can do it's actually heal something. I think I can relieve pain areas like this..." And oh god, it was like someone burst a bubble of pain and it drained away with an enormous sense of relief. "But I'm not sure if it is healing it, or just convincing the brain to not understand pain."

He was trying hard to not have a physical reaction that might unsettle Duo, but it was hard to not gasp and clutch at Quatre's back, shifting a little because that was just on the border between pleasure and pain, the relief and satisfaction of it was so intense. "Either is fine, fuck."

"It makes a difference. I should have been doing this for you regularly," Quatre said, focused on what he was doing. "I do have more control, I can see it clearer in my head now. It feels like a big knot or cyst and I... try to let the excess out." He was seeking around from the way he was moving, "Hmm I think there is a deep feeling one." He took it very slowly, slowly enough he could feel something change.

Treize breathed carefully, trying to stay relaxed and not focus on what Quatre was doing. "If it just keeps the pain down for a bit..."

"So like. Wufei seriously messed you up. Brain damage shit, yeah?" Duo was standing close enough to them both that Treize could feel his leg against his boot.

Rather surprisingly Quatre did not answer that - probably too deep in what he was doing and oh god, that was sublime. It felt like a pressure he hadn't even been aware of in his head had just drained away like a spigot had been turned on. "There is some damage," Quatre said vaguely after that moment. "I'll stop there, that...yeah, I could push further but I think I would end up with symptoms."

His arm around Quatre tightened, putting together quickly what that implied as Quatre drew back. "That's why I don't want you doing this regularly."

"Wait, what?" Duo pushed against Quatre's shoulder, gentling him back.

"I'm fine!" Quatre protested. "That's the point, I stopped." Duo was very protective over Quatre about anything. "It's not the amount, I think it is the depth of it. A mild pain, a surface pain was no real effort at all. So if I do it little and often, we can pick away at it."

"Eh, that sounds dicey," Duo agreed, a hand still on Quatre's shoulder. He glanced at Treize for backup, and Treize pulled at Quatre on the link, trying to share concern.

"Let's leave it alone for a couple of weeks and see how it impacts you. I'm grateful, but the cost is potentially too high."

That brought out Quatre's stubborn look. "I'll see how I feel over the next couple of days," he said. "I'm not going to give up on this, especially with the report from Lady Anne."

Duo looked up. "What report?" he asked slowly, obviously anticipating the worst.

Because if Quatre was carrying the damage Treize was functioning all right with, that wouldn't make the situation any better. He did appreciate the stubborn expression, though, the way his eyebrows came together.

"There is a threat to the lives of you pilots. A new organization; Anne has passed me the intel, but a kidnapping attempt seemed likely." He had hoped Heero had spoken to Duo.

"For fuck's sake," Duo huffed. "How many times do we have to save the world before people get it?"

"There can't be many people out there who know who we are," Quatre said. "Though, I suppose when we were taken into custody on MO-II, there were survivors there."

"They were loyal." It had been Anne, and what he now thought of as the basis of the unity government, staffed with soldiers from his own loyalist faction. He'd transited through that point briefly, while they'd stabilized him enough to get him back to earth. "There's more ways than that to have discovered who you are."

"True enough," Duo said. He shrugged a little. "Someone trying to kill us, that's like the old days eh Quat?"

"I don't want anything further to happen to any of us," Quatre said firmly and he had a planning look in his eye.

He let go of Quatre, while Duo stepped back from the sofa to grab a chair to sit in. It was a damn shame to stop, and he could very easily go from there to bed, but dinner was a good idea. Dinner and coming up with a plan; he needed to keep focused. "Let's get you caught up, then, and we can discuss this over dinner."

* * *

The problem with being 'caught up' was now there was a whole load of shit that he had to deal with on top of what he had been trying to process before. His usual trick of powering through and ignoring the weird stuff wasn't working because he hadn't walked away from Quatre and Treize and some of the most insane sex he'd ever had.

The offer stood, too.

The weirdest part was they were both so damn casual about it, and he hadn't seen either of them talk about it or be weird and jealous or... Duo didn't know. Quatre had already been comfortable and casual about sex, and now he was shacked up someone with the same weird, and they were down with threesomes.

It didn't help that when Treize went casual, he was actually pretty hot. Less slicked back and ready to drive a fist into your gut, and that was the moonbase all over again, the way the Ozzies had just...

Man.

He picked bits of beef out of the ragu, and alternated it with noodles, brain feeling kind of full. "So you think we're all... something, one of these types they experimented on. Except everyone's different."

"From what I've seen of the illegal research notes Treize collated," Quatre reported through a mouthful of dinner. "It describes their newtypes within parameters that apply to all of us. Enhanced reflexes, strength, endurance, acute spacial awareness. Treize said a lot of people died just trying to pilot a Gundam."

"The Leos were scaled down from the first gundam. Mass produced, less responsive, deployable in scale. Refitted for smaller pilots." Treize was balancing a snifter of something that had a kick to it on the arm of the sofa, and had his bowl on a knee. He was wearing sweatpants, and the T-shirt looked like a unit shirt covered in Arabic, around a white donkey. Somehow, Duo had imagined that it was going to be the man sitting at one end of a long elegant table, and him and Quatre down at the other end, with fifty different forks and maybe a megaphone to carry on a normal conversation. "And unfortunately, that research was very legal at the time. Questionable, tasteless, but legal. New types were seen as a threat, and then they were... mostly forgotten about. The wars and other news overwhelmed it."

"Immoral then," Quatre said, shaking his head. "Ending up like one of them is a fear I definitely have."

Duo was trying to get his head around it all. "You think I'm a new type? I'm not like Heero, and I don't think my hair is a type of ability."

"The physical stress of piloting a gundam killed most test pilots. It was part of what was leading to the creation of mobile dolls, and the obsession with recording your battle performances and brain patterns." Treize sipped at his drink. "And our scientists couldn't work out what made the difference. Why could some of us pilot a gundam, and some of us couldn't? Why did Zechs survive the original Tallgeese, but Otto didn't? We didn't have answers during the war."

"I wonder how many people died before the scientists found us," Quatre said thoughtfully.

This put a whole different complexion on being Shinigami, god of death and Duo shivered a bit. Dying in battle, yeah he got that but dying just for trying to test pilot something. Nah, that was extreme.

"OZ lost 82 test pilots from 193 to 195, under the auspices of my orders." Fuck.

Fuck, that was crazy. "You downplay it, Duo, but you're brilliant. You both are. You're both stronger, faster, smarter than everyone else around you."

Yeah, not smarter, not compared to the others. He was the cunning one, the sneak and down and dirty one with street smarts. He knew his place in the group.

"Stop that Duo," Quatre said reprovingly. "You're brilliant. When it comes to fixing and building you've got us all beat. All of us had a skill we excel in."

He could feel Quatre's uncertainty about his strategic skills, clear as day though.

"Clearly brash egotism isn't one of them."

"No but I don't know, I just feel normal. Like I'm just a street kid. Like you have a whole psychic thing going on, on top of being crazy smart, and Heero is super strong and like, senses a battlefield and Trowa and Wufei can both do jumps and shit and like you said special awareness that makes no sense to me. And..."

And Khushrenada, he just didn't know.

"Duo, you need to know, you are far above normal," Quatre met his eyes, and holy shit he looked serious. "The fact of successfully piloting a Gundam is proof of that, but I've seen you on missions - your covert skills are exceptional. Your cyber skills are too. If you want I can show you the skills analysis I did on each pilot before I met you." He touched him, and damn if he couldn't feel his sincerity. Quatre believed he was saying the truth at least.

Whether he was right or not was another thing, but he felt the real honesty of it at least. "Okay, but those people in that report... I'm not on that. I'm not, not that I know of. I can't kill with my mind or, light shit on fire, and I'm not psychic."

"Those are the outliers," Quatre said with a sigh. "The majority I think are...enhanced." His sense of being abnormal even among the abnormal was a sharp spike of unease.

And Duo didn't know what to do to make him feel better about that. "Maybe Khushrenada's like you. Subject 71 thought he could fix shit through self harm."

Treize had gone rather quiet at that. 

"I think there are a lot of different newtype shades of gray," Quatre said. "Things they have never tested. Or missed entirely. Treize, I haven't seen a case logged like him." He smiled at Treize.

"My brother had theories about the Yuys," Treize said, with an odd hesitation.

"Was he like this, too?" Duo asked, twiddling his fork a little and looking curiously.

"Half brother. No. But he was brilliant." Treize took a swig of his drink. "I don't know what it is. And I can't really demonstrate."

"No, it causes damage," Quatre said immediately.

Duo thought about it. "Shit, it's a lot to take in. Is there a way to confirm this?" Genetics, or some physical test.

"We do that and we have a possibility of the information leaking about everyone," Quatre answered.

"And then we relive the 40s again." Treize was giving Quatre a vaguely amused look, and Duo half imagined they were arguing.

Treize obviously scored a point because Quatre looked sheepish and looked down. Psychic fucking friends. Duo considered the thought of them being identified as other and he knew different was dead out there in the world. First rule of the streets, unless you had the balls and the status to make the rules you didn't flaunt difference.

Except, Khushrenada had the balls. And the money, and the power. So that was sort of... protection in a way. Except crazy people wanted to kidnap them for an entirely different but more understandable reason-- revenge.

"This is really fucked up."

"Yeah," Quatre said and exhaled. "I just don't want anything to happen to either of you. It terrifies me."

"It terrifies me." Duo waved his fork a little. "So what's the plan? We can't go defensive only."

"We need to identify enemies," Quatre said. "We can't be proactive without intel. I would target those who held us captive first. All of us experience that."

Oh yeah. Yeah they all had. Moon base, testing zero and shit, and Luxembourg, he guessed. "Romefeller," Treize suggested. "Some splinter group?"

Duo considered that. "Could be a splinter group, or anyone of disaffected OZ, or the White fang."

Quatre looked thoughtful. "We have a lot of enemies."

That was depressing to consider. He ate a little more, then set the bowl aside, watching Quatre. "How the hell do we even get started?"

"I'm thinking," Quatre said and he could rather weirdly sense something like the sparkle of thoughts. "Mmm."

And that was Quatre taking the lead again, which was subtle and still pretty damn interesting to Duo. Treize took his data pad back. "I'll reach out to a few possible useful sources."

"That would be useful," Quatre said. "The two potential reasons behind targeting us produce different areas of focus for suspects. There are those with personal revenge who are outraged that we will be pardoned even with our version of restorative justice, or a political motivation to acquire a power, bargaining chip or resource. The Gundam pilots are a significant collection of both. Our common point of weakness is our isolation from each other. Working as a team, we were significantly more effective than working alone. "

"Heero, Trowa and Wufei are very often together. You're both here. That's both useful and risky." Treize exhaled in a huff. "Have you spoken recently?"

"I've spoken with Heero," Duo said. "Trowa and Wufei seem to be using up their spare time at the moment." He still felt pretty shitty about that idea of getting them to tell Quatre. Half of him had hoped maybe Trowa still had to remember who he was interested in.

But no.

"What does Heero think?" Treize threw that out there even as he tapped something out rapidly on the pad. "Or was it before this broke?"

"Before this," and hell if he didn't feel guilty about being told to find out if the newtype gifts were real. There was one small problem about hanging around with psychic wonders and it was they knew if you were hiding something.

He tried very hard not to think about Heero asking him to see if Quatre's abilities were a liability or not.

"Oh."

Dammit, why was it so hard to hide?

Treize sat up straight, looking alert where he'd looked comfortable and lazy before. "What have you reported back?"

"That his abilities are definitely real and effective," he answered a little sheepishly. " I didn't say anything about fire starter powers though." He wasn't sure why, he just thought there was always a good reason to keep something in reserve.

There was something about the way Treize lifted an eyebrow. It wasn't... threatening, but it implied. He didn't need to be a psychic friend to tell that if their behind the scenes intrigue caused any harm to Quatre, he might as well have been back at the moonbase.

Or maybe he was just reading too deep into it.

"We're talking about one of us," he said rapidly.

"You're talking about Heero, who once broke into a heavily guarded base to kill you," Quatre pointed out. "Anyway, I digress."

"He broke into a heavily guarded base to try to kill Duo as well?" Treize slipped back to something of a lighter expression. "Not very good at it, as a numbers game. But he does have you here gathering intel. That's interesting."

"Hey, I'm here because I chose to be," Duo said. "Gathering intel is just icing on the cake, you know?"

That was why it was so hard to be alone in a room with the man, because he could turn and get his hooks in like whoa, and that was some kind of paranoia. "For Quatre. As long as we're open about it, that's fine. I have nothing to hide."

Weirdly. Weirdly true. He expected more illegal experimentation and hidden shit, but it was all there. Everything the specials had ever done or planned to do. Treize kept handing him his data pad and letting him use it like he didn't have anything secret on it, pictures of the exes and torture-of-himself porn excepted. 

Duo was finding it hard to deal with the fact that Treize actually did seem to be what Quatre said, someone underneath it all who had been very like them. He wasn't getting the full rundown on how things had been in his childhood but Treize himself had said about being abused and yet...

It was hard to let go of the image he had in his head of the leader of the faction that in his head caused deaths and atrocities. But then he'd found out that he'd been so fucking young when ordered to hit L2. Would he have been able to fight an order that would have been weighing his men's lives in a balance? It didn't make it right, but he got it. Treize in no way tried to justify it or present it as anything but an atrocity and Quatre reminded him they'd all done things like that, individually and collectively, sometimes inadvertently but no one had been left pure.

"I need more information to make more detailed judgements and a lot of this is inference," Quatre interrupted. "But I believe Lady Anne would have only contacted Treize in the event of a credible threat. Random members of the public with a personal grudge she would have deemed us more than capable of dealing with on an...ad hoc basis."

True enough in Duo's eyes. They'd had a taste of that when the colonies turned against them.

"Therefore, for a credible threat to be considered, it has to be coordinated, organised and made with sufficient data to potentially take down Gundam pilots who have significant resources." Quatre said, his voice taking on the more short precise patterns he remembered from their battles. "The operatives will be drawn from military experience, from groups like the Specials, and coordinated by someone who has an overall political basis, and need to benefit. Some genuine zealots will have been recruited, and will be their weakest links. The most likely perpetrator of this based on those with the capacity and resources to do this is Augustus Moran."

Huh.

Treize was quiet, maybe thinking about it, maybe not. Quatre was sort of a link between them, and thank god none of it seemed to cross over. "L1 inheriting the dispossessed from Dekim's demise."

"L2 will not strike against OZ, as their economic future is linked to you," Quatre said. "L3 is too weakened, though we are likely to find key operatives from within their ranks. L4 potentially could, but lacks the will or focus. Of the faction on Earth, Romefeller is likely to have the most information that could have been taken by disaffected agents who have the skill sets to attempt to take us down."

"I have no sway over them anymore. I have negative sway over them, so that's on Dorothy. I've given up the title three times now..." And that didn't make sense to Duo.

"Wait like how the fuck does that work? Romefeller, or, I never could figure it out. It's like a bunch of rich people have a conclave right?" He scooted his chair in a little closer to Quatre, while Treize finished his drink and fiddled with the glass.

"It's a... landless kingship, I suppose is the closest I can explain it. At one point in the resource wars the nobility of Europe and northern Africa and some of the Middle East united in agreement and found a noble line that they believed could lead them. That would be my four times great grandfather on my mother's side. As my parents were a morganatic marriage, I ceded the title, the lands, and the money to Vingt. After he died, I gave up trying to get rid of the money and the lands, and, well, the title is Dorothy's now that Duke Dermail is dead. It was made clear to me during my exile that I was not an appropriate fit."

Quatre rested his hand against Treize's neck and hair, instinctively from the look of it. "Duo, I know you've cracked your way in there. Can you do some searching? Looking for connections to L1 or Moran, skill sets in abduction or assassination. Files on us and the Romefeller interest. Moran using Romefeller agents is like trying to beat someone to death with a cobra."

"Yeah, I can do that," Duo murmured, watching as Treize leaned into that touch. He was just a tiny bit jealous, yeah.

Quatre looked up at him catching his gaze and smiled. "I do have two hands you know," he said smiling a little. "In the meantime, we need to hastily sort out connections between us. They will try to get us isolated and separated. But I think I could feel either of you anywhere at the moment."

"That's useful, unless you lose consciousness or are otherwise restrained." Treize slouched a little, and Duo sighed, and moved to sit on Quatre's other side on the sofa.

"Budge up. This is still fucking weird."

The touch of Quatre's hand when he sat next to Treize was enough of a bliss to make him forget the weirdness, or not care at least. No wonder Trieze had been moaning like he was having sex. Those fingers found the sore point that made him have to crick his neck and it was like relief, release and fucking orgasmic sensation in one. The impressive fact was that he was carrying on talking.

"We have to assume our potential captors have our normal modes of operation there so we need to keep certain things secret," Quatre said. "If you must report to Heero, don't put it in writing or anything hackable. Secondly, find out what the files say, then figure out something different."

He sighed, and slouched into Quatre's touch, brain meandering off again. "Okay. Okay. I'll work on it tonight. This is completely distracting, though. Like..." Unbalanced, because he wanted to relax and yet there was an urgency.

"It will help," he said. "I do not want to lose either of you. Or Trowa, Heero and Wufei..." He sounded concerned. "I, I need stronger bonds to you all."

"Okay, like you can't actually travel the earth and fuck everyone. I mean you could but, I, is there another way?" Duo squirmed a little.

He felt Quatre's pang of hurt and worry as he took his hands away. "Holding hands or touching skin to skin seems to do it," he said.

He heard Treize sigh, and the General shifted to set a hand on the back of Quatre's neck as Quatre pulled back into himself. "I don't think he meant it like that."

"No, I just, I don't know." Duo twisted a little to look at his friend. "Like multiple people, not a thing I'm used to."

"That was my first time too," Quatre said with a downwards look. "I wasn't completely in control."

"We have two tasks at hand; intel and solidifying what we can do independently. I think tonight we need to deal with these misapprehensions that will get in the way." Treize cleared his throat slightly after saying that. "I was in complete control, and enjoyed it thoroughly."

Ah hell, that was what was eating Quatre? He thought he'd made him do it?

"I… was responding to a need as a result of being scared I was losing Trowa and Wufei," Quatre said. He'd obviously been thinking about it a great deal.

"We're all..." Duo struggled for a moment, thinking about subject 71, and how things felt for him, or must have, to be acting like he had. "You didn't lose anyone. They're still your friends. They just were trying to not hurt you, and it made things worse."

"I know," Quatre said. "I know what they were trying to do but this empathic understanding makes it impossible to hate anyone because I really know them. So I know that out of awkwardness they will maybe lightly shift away so they don't have to think about it. It feels like an injury, something that bleeds out when no one notices it. I wanted something for myself, I didn't get it. That's the end of it."

"Yeah, except not really, because you're still messed up over it," Duo said, shifting in closer to Quatre. That was just... yeah it was weird, and he was okay with it, maybe. He'd thought going into it that Quatre was in Khushrenada's thrall, but three weeks in, he was dead sure it was the other way around.

And Quatre was really shitty at exploiting that.

"Because I forced you! You shared feelings that weren't completely comfortable and I manipulated you or something into having sex when you weren’t ready! There’s a word for that," Quatre noted.

"I..." It was a weird conversation to have, side by side by side on the sofa. "No, I'm. It was a lot. Like it was a lot all at once. And then you're laying on top of me and I feel like I'm getting fucked by proxy while Treize splits you in half, and it was just really intense. It was all really intense and I'm not used to that."

Quatre hesitated, coming round to stand in front of them. "I'm sorry," he apologised. "I'm sorry Duo, I don't know what to say."

Duo twisted his braid a little, and looked sideways at Treize, to find the man watching Quatre raptly. "You have a lot right here, even if Trowa doesn't want you. It’s maybe a thing."

"But I still need to be connected with them, and I didn't manage a connection with Wufei and what if we're in danger?" Quatre said helplessly. "I know I'm connected to you both and that is my saving grace, but I need to save all of us."

And to Duo's ears, that was weirdly gutting, because he kept seeing things person to person and he just didn't get it. He could try, but he really didn't understand. If Quat had felt like this every time they went off on the war, he must have felt like they were all hacking limbs off of him or something all the goddamn time.

Treize stood up, sliding a hand against Quatre's side. "To some degree, we'll have to do it the old fashioned way."

"I'm not explaining myself well," Quatre said. "I don't know if I can explain it."

Duo stood up, too, cause it seemed like a weird sort of group hug moment, except the hugging hadn't quite started. "You can try?" Duo said hesitantly.

"Can I show you?" he said looking at him. "Words don't seem to have the ability to describe it, or why I'm worried. Emotions are...something more tangible to me than they are to most people."

"Yeah." He glanced at Treize, who just seemed calm, to understand, somehow. Except he was a complete disaster. "Yeah. Help me out."

Perhaps he'd already done this with him. Quatre reached out and took Duo's hand and said, "This is what you all feel like to me..."

The unmistakable presence of each of the Gundam pilots paraded across his mind and he was rocked back by the sheer intensity of love that he felt; hell, Quatre described it as 'caring' not love and he'd thought somehow it was casual, and more distant somehow. His own presence was there, a need, a love, a desperation to keep safe, and well, to help to heal that was rich and complex and utterly genuine. He was pretty sure no one had ever felt that way about him before. There was something comforting and, safe about having the connection; but then came the distancing and... it was rejection, hurt, coldness and there on top of it, Quatre was trying to rationalise it and he was truly happy for them but underneath was not just hurt for himself but a fear, and anxiety that he might not have a strong enough bond to save them.

It felt somehow instinctive, he'd needed to have the connections like life blood, and he could not be satisfied with less. He'd held it back and held it back for days until he couldn't any more. And then it had all fit together so organically, and the connection, the feeling of being with both of them, each of them, forged it into a deeper connection, eased back some of that primal need. 

Duo didn't know what to do with a connection like that with someone who cared that much.  
He'd spent a lot of his time protecting himself from feeling too much because it fucking hurt and caring all the time, how the hell did you deal with that? How did you fight like that when your general level attachment to people was so high meant that any loss was devastating?

"By trying not to lose anyone if there is something I can do to stop it from happening." Quatre said with a sigh. "I think words make things sound different to what I am feeling, there isn't context. Does sensing it help? And show why I am worried...I don't mean to do anything, but I worry."

"This helps. I think. I keep thinking..." Relationships, and dating, and the way it had been back on L2, well, the way it kinda was anywhere. Person a, person b, done, cool, they make choices and do things together and that was a relationship. He thought that back at Quatre very deliberately, trying to get his take. Quatre and Trowa, except not now, and now Quatre and Treize and maybe Quatre and him, except, yeah, and that was kind of where the mismatch hit, but he got closer to articulating it without words.

"Oh..." Quatre seemed to understand all of that in a moment. He got a flood back of a different feeling, for Quatre the relationships happened all the time, they never went away truly. Even with Trowa, there would be a relationship going on. With him, there was a relationship - with Treize... yes a more intense relationship now that he was working to understand...but it meant that he did rejoice in their happiness with others too. There was no expectation for them to remain 'faithful' because the relationship would always be there. Trowa had hit him hard not because he would have no relationship, but because it wasn't the special one he had hoped for. The love and care was still there.

"I think I'm working on a different conceptual basis to the rest of the world."

"Completely different. I don't, wow, I don't know how to think about that. I mean, as a long term thing?" Duo pulled back a little to look at Quatre's face, at Treize half holding Quatre, silent while they worked it out. "Are you two on the same... page, whatever it is? Is it the... same or?" He didn't want to use the word normal, though it was on the tip of his tongue and that probably stung, because it was beyond normal, in a way.

"I don't know. Quatre, could you bridge me over? Is that even possible?" 

Quatre nodded and it was weird watching someone process what he had just been sent. He just knew when Quatre had shown him how much he felt for him because Treize's expression became something akin to shock, disbelief and overwhelmed. He obviously was struggling to comprehend that and what was interesting was something that looked like he'd received information that made things clearer in his own life.

Then, Quatre reached to hold touch him as well and there was a faint bit of jumbling and he could feel Quatre doing something complicated and...then he could pick up Treize as well.

It wasn't the overwhelming heat of love and caring; it was like standing in a field on a cold day, and there was maybe comfort up to his ankles, low level concern, responsibility, like a carpet of flowers or grass, background noise, and here and there were pillars of pure fire, spaced out, enveloping people. The nearest one was a lithe pale blond man, their age, and the image of him smiling, fox faced and bright blue eyes alternated between him bloody and dead on the ground with his head blown half off and holy fuck, and then he was standing there smiling, forever alternating between the two states.

There was Marquise, young, like little kid young and then somewhere in between and then a strapping hot adult, and that made sense, and Quatre sitting in that room, by the fireplace, meditating, huge burning streaks of emotion, but there was also Mariemaia, so maybe again not the best fucks file again, he really needed to keep his head cleaner. He heard Treize laugh quietly, even as he came across himself, the other pilots, lower smaller pillars of fire, but out there. Relena, and Noin, and other officers he didn't know, Lady and the dead ones were overlapping life and corpse life and corpse. It was so cold and vacant between them all. There was Dorothy, and an older man who looked like her, her dad maybe. An exploded mech, a smiling face by a Christmas tree.

He wondered what the low level everything at his ankles was, and heard Treize say, "I know the names of everyone who died because of my actions or orders." And that was the inside of the dude’s head? What the fuck.

There was Quatre again, and the comparison presence made it clear that this was an ability and Quatre settled in a middle ground and showed him his past. Duo had to admit, and he'd teased Quatre about it often enough that a rich kid didn't have a lot to complain about but Treize gave that one a knock and Quatre...well, a rich kid might have little to complain about, but a rich kid empath was another matter. Quatre was an empath looking for connections with family and never getting them. He knew absolutely how people felt about him, if they barely tolerated him, if he was a disappointment or if his parents loved him.

His father couldn't look at him without seeing the death of his mother in him, which drowned out his caring. He felt the disinterest of many and...it was a constant battle day in, day out to manage and understand the emotions around him as he tried to work for the perfection he hoped would open his father’s heart to him. The constant barrage drained him to a point of constant broken self-esteem and suicidal ideation he plastered a smile over and tried to endure.

Rashid, holding him hostage, had been one of the most honest and clear emotions he had felt in a long time. The connection they made was strong enough in minutes for him to nearly give his life for him.

It had changed him, turned things around; it wasn't like a clear before and after, but Quatre's emotional landscape broadened up, got healthier, got more people in it. Got past the constant battle and started to find companionship and comrades in the Magaunacs. More connections, and if Duo thought about it, it was all past five years new.

"You feel like you should both be the same. Vast big love, I can't quite... It's the texture." He was trying to work it through as Quatre shared some of the nuances of the smaller definitely non sexual connections that had been so important to him, the occasional confusion when he'd been a teenager trying to work it out. Treize shared none of that, it was just the weirdness of the field, self contained, self protective, ownership, responsibility. Maybe it wasn't love, but responsibility, but it felt like love? Like wanting to protect and failing to, over and over, reaching for the heat and falling back, letting it go.

And then Quatre just deeply knowing everything going on in everyone's fucking heads, like Duo's worst nightmare of having to hear every weird paranoid thought he projected onto people thinking about him. He imagined they thought of him as trash, a street kid, dumb, dirty, a fuckup, but to like feel that shit all day every day and know they really did think that Quatre was fragile and sweet and incompetent, naive. A waste of effort, not everything he could be, not smart enough, not cunning, not what they wanted for an heir, man, that had to be soul destroying. And then with Treize there was just an absence, no love, not for him; for an ideal, for goals, for other people in reference to him and expectation that he could be that other. Everyone around him had wanted something else, except for Dorothy, the older guy with her, and the dead guy that was front and center, and he felt Treize think brother/protect/better than me/peace, all at once in a blur like it was one word.

Duo leaned into Quatre; and hugged them both, face wet and feeling sort of messed up. He just had the edge of an understanding and a pattern and they were the same except Quatre pushed joy and love out despite everything the world gave him when he listened, and Treize pulled in, shut down, furnace hot in spots and ice colder than space everywhere else, and it made him turn to Quatre more because he couldn't take that and the wide open reflection of love and warmth was so much better. 

That was okay, Quatre's emotions promised more, just the two of them, and promised the same for Treize. He'd never seen him as a trash street kid, and could tell him neither had the other pilots. He'd never thought of him as anything but amazing and admired and respected him...  
It was too much to feel.

"Are you okay?" Quatre asked aloud.

"No?" Duo laughed, and he was definitely crying, head bent down against Quatre's shoulder, like it would stop the tears. Maybe the vacancy was what had creeped him out about Treize, maybe he could pick up on it or he didn't know, and he exhaled hard against Quatre as the other connection eased back, until it was just him and Quatre and a little less complicated to process. "But now I'm understanding the whole disaster area thing better. I, it's like that all the time for both of you. I couldn't, I didn't get it."

"I don't think about it a lot," Treize offered. "Didn't have the language to explain it until Quatre." Yeah, if you held something under ice water long enough it was damn well going to die off. It scared him to think that Quatre could do that to himself, hurt that amazing warmth and love.

"There's been some thawing out," Quatre said, smiling a little and kissed Duo lightly. "I know you find it to reconcile your experience with what I'm telling you sometimes."

"Yeah well it's completely different I don't..." He clutched back, a little tight as he leaned into the kiss for a moment. "The church had ideas and like this is almost found family thing, which you know we were all big into, but it's something else. Too."

"Yes. Which is why I know I came off as a little over the top and insistent on us working together," Quatre said. "If not for the Maguanacs, I probably would not have survived much longer having cut myself off from my family. I didn't really feel it the same way then but that would have been the end result."

He wondered if OZ, the specials, had done the same for Treize. Duo had been left with an impression of death, and that was kinda a deeply familiar thing. Maybe they all had a lot in common, on the fringes. "But you're okay now."

"I feel I have connections, but it is still horrifying to feel so plainly all the things that were leveled at you in your childhood are still the same now," Quatre answered. "They care in a... light , insubstantial way. Like you would for an object of use you don't want damaged."

"That's their loss." Treize said it firmly, with a definitive air that Duo appreciated just then. "Give them back the same level of care."

"That is not something that comes naturally," he admitted. "But I am trying." He gave Treize a kiss then, in a natural movement. "Before I get told off for over exertion, I am going to eat some of the dinner Duo brought up and fully intend to do it lying on, or extremely close to both of you."

"Yeah. Okay." Maybe it made more sense now. Like it wasn't just sexual it was some deep-seated need that maybe still didn't make sense but he could get it and it clicked finally.

"Bed?" Treize offered that, and then amended, "think of it like a very large sofa with leg support."

That actually sounded okay. Somehow now, he just knew that Treize wasn't going to try and take advantage of him like that. He'd been told, but now he knew it personally. It wouldn't be a hardship to lie on the bed, watch some TV or a movie together, let Quatre recharge his empath batteries and that all sounded pretty nice.

He nodded and collected up the tray he brought in.

"Come on, what are we waiting for?"


End file.
